[0zelot]

Hey, project owner here. Glad you all enjoy this! :-) I've never built my particle detectors on a breadboard. It is extremely likely that they will oscillate or frustrate in another way. You have to keep in mind that the amplification is enormously large, per particle only a few thousands of charges are being generated and turned into a still tiny voltage. The lower 10M-feedback electron-detector version works if _soldered_ on a prototyping/veroboard. Those with regular hole patterns - if the parts are put really close together.

Please don't be put off by the circuit board requirement, I have listed it on kitspace such that it is really easy and cheap to get one: https://kitspace.org/boards/github.com/ozel/diy_particle_det... Even if you have never ordered a PCB, it should be straight forward using kitspace as a proxy to get it right.

For beginners, I would propose soldering the electron-detector first (on the plus side, it has 4 times more the sensitivity) and if that works swap few parts and upgrade to the alpha-spectrometer variant since that is a bit more tricky to operate and get running. I've commented on the through-hole/SMD choice and similar questions in this twitter thread https://twitter.com/0zelot/status/1260931205676990466.

In short, I choose leaded components over SMD where possible such that it is easy to solder. But analog signal integrity and low noise vs. signal require a circuit board.

[helsinkiandrew]

Presumably this would be suitable for soldering Dead Bug or no circuit board style - component to component.

[0zelot]

even the alpha-spectrometer might work if soldered wisely on a regular prototyping grid. in any case, thoroughly cleaning after soldering with alcohol will help. but considering the really cheap and fast PCB productions nowadays, the hassle is most likely not worth it.